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Hip hop artist Black Bird is not happy with the National Arts Merits Awards after this year’s edition.
She has penned an open letter and we publish it here unredacted.
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An Open letter to the Minister of Arts & Culture and the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ)
Dear Sirs,
In a bid to retain my sanity and avoid appearing as a sore loser, I quietly accepted my unexpected defeat in the ‘Most Outstanding Music Video’ category, at the recently held NAMA Awards. However after careful consideration, I feel it would be irresponsible of me to keep my observations to myself at a time when both artists and members of the public are demanding answers to the same questions that I have about the processes behind the NAMAs.
In all honesty I must begin by commending the NACZ on providing comfortable transport and accommodation for all the nominees. The service we received both during the trip and at the Rainbow Hotel in Bulawayo was of a good standard and being a NAMA nominee is definitely one of the highlights of my career. To my surprise it was not as disorganized as most local events and I actually enjoyed my NAMA experience until that dreadful moment where my hard-earned award (not to mention the $500 prize money and a DSTV decoder) was stolen from me in ‘broad daylight’. The good work put in by the NAMA organizers and sponsors amounted to naught when I watched injustice prevail, not only for me, but for scores of other artists whose work was either snubbed or misjudged at the hands of incompetent judges panel. Edith weUtonga, Nox and so many other artists have criticized the NAMAs for a reason. They lack transparency and fairness.
Zimbabwean artists depend on NACZ to make sure Awards ceremonies like the NAMAs are legitimate. The Zimbabwe Hip-Hop Awards have run for 3 years now and the NACZ does not seem to have done anything to look into the credibility of these Awards ceremonies despite the on-going controversy surrounding the event. As a custodian of the arts, NACZ should be ensuring ALL awards ceremonies in Zimbabwe are conducted in a manner that is above board. Charity begins at home as they say and the just ended NAMAs would a good place to start. It’s time for NACZ to mop up the milk and take artists seriously. NACZ needs to create monitoring and evaluation systems, where every stage of the submissions; nomination; voting and adjudication process is transparent and fair.
I speak both as a concerned journalist and as an affected artist in the hope that the new Minister of Arts and Culture, together with Mr Mari and Mr Moyo’s team at NACZ will act promptly in order to restore the credibility of the NAMAs. Below is a list of grievances with regards to the 2014 NAMAs, some of which require clarification from NACZ:
1. Only two producers were nominated in my category for Most Outstanding Video, with two nominations going to one person. Now by no means do I mean to disrespect the work of Willard Magombedze, but surely the NAMAs could have picked one Jah Prayzah video to include on the list of nominations. I personally know of one hip-hop artist (and I am sure there are several more) whose submission was not nominated despite them having a good, if not even better quality music video than the 2 Jah Prayzah videos nominated. I find it hard to believe that no other acceptable submissions were made besides mine and the 2 Jah Prayzah videos. How about using the NAMAs to motivate and recognise upcoming producers who made the effort to submit their work?
2. There is a lot of confusion surrounding criteria used to select the winner of the ‘Most Outstanding Video’ and it needs to be clarified as to whether this category’s winner was selected based on PRODUCTION QUALITY of the music video, as it is supposed to have been, or if it is based on the POPULARITY of the musician. Many people myself included, don’t understand how my music video for “Waiting for Love”, one that is clearly of an international standard got outdone by a production which is inferior in terms of scripting, cinematography, locations, casting, editing etc. How is it that a panel of professional judges failed to see that ‘Waiting for Love’ is in a league of it’s own, something evidenced by Channel O’s recent acceptance and applaud of the same video. ‘Most OUTSTANDING Video’, means just that. It must STAND OUT! ‘Waiting for Love’ stands out so much you would never think it was shot in Zimbabwe. To say the video for ‘Mwanasikana’ is the ‘Most Outstanding Music Video’ to come out of Zimbabwe during the past year is extremely inaccurate and a quick Youtube comparison will be sufficient to see the difference between ‘Mwanasikana’ and ‘Waiting for Love’.
3. One has to question the identity and credibility of the judges because of the lack of TRANSPARENCY on who they were. This makes one wonder if they even know what the current global standards for music video production are? Who was on the adjudication panel and are they qualified enough to select the correct winners for such a wide array of categories? There’s nothing worse than the blind leading the blind. By not revealing the judges names, the NAMAs have planted the fast-growing seed of doubt in the credibility of their judges. Gender balance and the diversity in terms of age on the judges panel also comes into question.
4. I am not sure how many females have previously been nominated for producing music videos at the NAMAs,
but I am pretty sure this was the first time that a female filmmaker and musician is nominated for producing HER OWN music video. What a success story, not just for young Zimbabweans, but for the Zimbabwean woman and girl! By stealing my much-deserved victory, the NAMAs robbed me of the opportunity to inspire a new generation of female filmmakers and a new breed of female musicians. This was history in the making, but unfortunately the NAMAs found themselves on the wrong side of history. A woman achiever was publicly robbed of her accolade in a country where our government has made its stance on the empowerment of women and the girl child very clear. To find that the NAMAs, a respectable event hosted by our country’s arts Ombudsman, would turn a blind eye to a woman being trampled on is s really sad. I am not for one minute insinuating that I should have been given the award merely because I am a woman, but simply because I worked hard and earned it. Do the NAMAs realize that they have done a disservice to all Zimbabwe women by giving a man an award that rightfully belongs to a woman?
5. The Peoples Choice Award, which was an excellent inclusion in this year’s NAMAs, had one major flaw which must be mentioned. By allowing Jah Prayzah to be the only nominee to perform on the night, the NAMAs gave Jah Prayzah an unfair advantage by giving him a primetime advert on stage and then requesting that the public vote shortly after that. Now if you are like the average person and you see Jah Prayzah perform excellently then you are told to vote, who would you naturally vote for? The guy is impressive and in all honesty he probably would have won anyway but the NAMAs shot themselves in the foot by removing the fairness of the People’s Choice Award by allowing Jah Prayzah to take to the stage, while the voting lines were still open.
I have met so many older and more experienced people in the arts industry who have written off the NAMA Awards and they don’t bother to submit their work for consideration. Instead of promoting and developing the arts industry, the NAMA’s, Zimbabwe’s highest possible arts accolade, has been turned into another white elephant. The importance of these awards ceremonies goes beyond public recognition and personal gratification. It comes down to the dollars and cents. Besides the immediate cash prize received, a NAMA win would have enabled me to enter the next phase of my career. The possibilities in terms of corporate partnerships and endorsement deals would have changed over night. Who knows what opportunities a NAMA win would have opened me up to.
When an artist fails to get recognition you not only kill their potential income generation capacity, but you also kill their passion. I am part of a new breed of talented and hardworking artists putting in countless number of hours to put Zimbabwe on an international stage yet we get mud thrown in our faces. Many of us have invested our own finances into building this arts industry. A little bit of recognition would not hurt at all. Neither would some cash in the wallet! Zimbabwe needs to take this opportunity to spring clean our arts industry and correct any irregularities that have happened. The NAMAS need CREDIBILITY, TRANSPARENCY and FAIRNESS. Is that too much to ask?
Yours in Art,
Nonkululeko Vundla a.k.a Black Bird
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